Many thanks to Amy @Amy’s Creative Side for continuing to host the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. This year, instead of 2 festivals that align with Quilt Market, Amy has offset the festivals from market and moved to hosting an IG Quilt Festival in the spring and the online Blogger’s Quilt Festival in September. I am always so inspired by the quilts that are shared during the festival, so even if you do not link up, I hope you hop over and take a look at the amazing quilts that are being entered this year.
The festival requires that we create new blog posts to link up, so many thanks to my patient long term readers for allowing me to get to re-share quilts from this past year of which I am particularly proud. We are allowed to link up two quilts to the various categories, and my first entry to the festival is Beacon, which I am entering into the Modern category.
Beacon
I believe that quilts hold power in the mindfulness behind their creation. When I developed Beacon, I was thinking a lot about how quilting allows my inner light to shine. When times are hard, when emotions run deep, when stress and life get me down, I know that even just a few minutes at my sewing machine can help bring an inner peace and calm into my life. That knowledge for me is like a lighthouse beacon to sailors on a stormy sea. So I chose to use Robert Kaufman Kona solids in Nautical, Torch, and White for my version of the quilt. Not only did the colors speak to me, but the names of the colors pulled me. I love the stark, crisp contrast of the bright white against the nautical background. And just like a lighthouse, the the Kona Torch just glows against the dark night / sky / sea.
Beacon
I heavily quilted the beacon points using a dense vertical matchstick quilting in Aurifil 1104 (Neon Orange). I wanted the strong orange lines to have a rising, hopeful feeling, and for the top full beacon point, I staggered the density of the quilting to give it a pulsing / rotating lighthouse beacon feel.
Beacon – Quilting Detail
The background of the quilt is quilted using Aurifil 2784 (Dark Navy) which blends beautifully with the Kona Nautical. The background quilting motif is meant to evoke waves on the ocean, but others have mentioned they see fish scales or the clamshell motif that I used. As long as it has that sense of the sea, I am definitely satisfied. I heavily quilted the white angled piecing using a dense horizontal matchstick quilting in Aurifil 2024 (White).
Beacon – Back of Quilt
Because the quilting for the piecing on the front of the quilt is so dense, the pattern still glows and shows when viewed from the back!
For the finishing touch to the quilt, I added some orange into the binding. A solid strip of Kona Torch aligns with the large upper beacon, but above the side beacons I also tucked Kona Torch behind a layer of Kona White so that there is a subtle glow in the binding there as well.
Beacon
Beacon finished at 72-inches square. I am really proud of the piecing precision that I achieved with Beacon, and I feel like it is my most modern quilt that I have made to date.
If you are new to my work, a few of my recent finishes from this year are featured above. I hope you stick around and explore my free Tutorials, and if you have more time, I urge you to peruse some of the Discussions that we occasionally have here as well (be sure to read the comments on each Discussion post!). Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and (re)read about my quilt, Beacon.
**Beautiful!!**
… And, Thank you!, for sharing your process!…
(I loved reading your artist’s statement about the Beacon quilt!!)
This is beautiful. The quilting on the beacon is fabulous in orange!
So glad to see these again! I love the way you styled the photos, too. Beautiful!
Stunning quilt, spectacular photos. I especially like the detail of the orange stitching.
So glad you entered this one! I forgot how much I love it ! The orange puts it over the top for me!
Such an impressive quilt in all ways, the design, the color choice, and especially the quilting. You have certainly completed a masterpiece. congratulations.
Just lovely! 🙂 One of my favorites.
Thanks for sharing the details and design choices you made in creating this beautiful quilt. Your quilting is amazing!
Always one of my favorite quilts of yours!
Stunning. You continue to step up your game (in a great way; as I have mentioned in the past, I love all your quilts!). I really ove the matchstick quilting on the white angled pieced – it is amazing how it pops those pieces. You have much to be proud of and while I’m not sure how I stumbled onto your site I am very humbled to be a fan and to be inspired by your work.
I always love revisiting favorite quilts. I love how this quilt and its pictures turned out.
Your quilting is my favorite part of this quilt! It just glows (literally). Thanks for sharing your lovely pics again!
I love the stunning second picture 🙂 Enjoy the festival!
This is among my favourites of your quilts, Yvonne. It is so beautiful and so you 🙂
Great entry for the modern category of the BQF! The picture with the rolling hills in the background is beautiful!
Living by the ocean I can truly relate to the thought you put into this quilt. Breathtaking, it is just lovely.
It is so true about how focusing on the making of a quilt helps calm us and focus us and helps us deal with stress. My very favorite thing about this quilt Yvonne is how you quilting in the orange beams of light.
I think that this is my favorite of all of your quilt designs, the geometric shapes, colors, and quilting are just perfect!
Gorgeous work! I really love all the details, they add up to make this quilt so special. I know you called it Beacon, but I can’t help it, I always see that top of the beacon as an exploding volcano. But volcanoes are strong and commanding forces, so I hope you’ll forgive me 🙂
Amazing quilt and lovely photos!
Another wonderful quilt Yvonne. The orange really sets it off and lifts it to another level. Great entry.
Lovely quilt nice quilting.
The great thing about this festival is that you get to see all these wonderful quilts again. And they all look just as amazing as the first time around. Good luck.
What a wonderful composition!